Numbers Game

Hayden's power play

While most of the other teams are struggling to score runs in the early overs, Australia are doing just fine, thanks to Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist

S Rajesh
S Rajesh
20-Apr-2007


Matthew Hayden has bludgeoned the bowling in the early overs, even as most of the other batsen have struggled © Getty Images
A key feature of the Super Eight matches in this World Cup has been the inability of the opening batsmen to get off to the kind of frenetic start that's become the norm in one-day cricket. Sixty runs in ten overs is often par for the course on flat, batsman-friendly tracks, but in this tournament, the trend has been entirely different: difficult pitches with seam and swing - and sometimes bounce - on offer has made the openers' lot an unenviable one. The latest instance of the openers' struggle was in evidence during West Indies' match against Bangladesh in Barbados on Thursday - despite having Chris Gayle in their ranks, West Indies limped to 17 for 2 after ten, which turned out to be only marginally worse than Bangladesh's 22 for 2 at a similar stage in their innings.
That game wasn't the exception either: in 22 Super Eight matches so far, the first ten overs has yielded an average run-rate of 3.61, at 25.98 runs per wicket. So, on an average, teams have been 36.1 runs for the loss of 1.4 wickets after ten overs, which is hardly a typical ten-over score.
The openers from all sides have struggled, except one: Australia's opening pair of Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist have blasted the ball around as if these were the most batsman-friendly pitches. The table below shows how each team has fared in the first ten overs in the Super Eight games, and the difference between the Australians and the rest is gigantic, and goes a long way in explaining why Australia have completely dominated all the teams in the tournament so far. The table below also explains, to a large extent, why some of the other teams failed to make the cut - West Indies and England would both have fancied their chances of putting up a better show, but neither could recover from the repeated failures of their opening pairs.
Teams in the first ten overs in the Super Eight
Team Runs Balls Wickets Average Run rate
Australia 284 303 2 142.00 5.62
South Africa 258 366 7 36.85 4.22
Sri Lanka 258 369 10 25.80 4.19
New Zealand 184 301 7 6.28 3.66
West Indies 149 302 9 16.55 2.96
England 149 305 8 18.62 2.93
Bangladesh 175 360 8 21.87 2.91
Ireland 154 370 11 14.00 2.48
Hayden and Gilchrist haven't come across Shane Bond yet, but they've handled the rest of the bowlers pretty comfortably, averaging 86.50 per partnership, with six fifty-plus stands in seven innings - the only exception was against West Indies, when Gilchrist fell for 7 with the score on 10. That was one of only two occasions when Australia have lost a wicket within the first ten overs - Gilchrist has fallen on both occasions, but Hayden has been absolutely impregnable: he has scored as quickly as Gilchrist without being dismissed even once during the first Powerplay.
Hayden and Gilchrist in the first ten overs in Super Eight
Batsman Runs Balls Dismissals Average Run rate
Matthew Hayden 92 99 0 - 5.57
Adam Gilchrist 135 145 2 67.50 5.58
After Hayden's disappointing series in England in 2005, many thought he'd disappear from the Australian one-day set-up. He did, for a while, but since coming back to the team in the DLF Cup in September 2006 he has been in irresistible form, scoring plenty of runs, and getting them quickly.
Hayden's slump and revival since May 2004
Period Matches Runs Average Strike rate 100s/ 50s
May 2004 - Dec 2005 26 852 34.08 69.49 1/ 5
Since 2006 23 1186 62.42 88.17 4/ 4
So prolific has Hayden been in the last eight months that his average is the highest among all batsmen who've scored at least 750 runs since 2006. In the World Cup so far, more than one fast bowler has been bludgeoned into submission by Hayden: he has scored at at least a run a ball against Shaun Pollock (33 from 16 balls), Farveez Maharoof (22 from 12), Charl Langeveldt (22 from 14), Andrew Hall (26 off 18) and Daren Powell (31 from 31). Three more such performances, and Australia will be favourites to complete a hat-trick of World Cup triumphs.
Best ODI batsmen since Jan 2006 (Qual: 750 runs)
Batsman Matches Runs Average Strike rate 100s/ 50s
Matthew Hayden 23 1186 62.42 88.17 4/ 4
Jacques Kallis 28 1046 58.11 78.88 2/ 6
Yuvraj Singh 29 1111 52.90 91.66 2/ 7
Ricky Ponting 39 1657 50.21 90.34 5/ 12
AB de Villiers 26 1054 47.90 92.94 1/ 8
Kevin Pietersen 25 1038 47.18 83.70 1/ 9
Sanath Jayasuriya 42 1772 46.54 106.42 7/ 5
Ramnaresh Sarwan 36 1335 46.03 76.24 1/ 10
Shivnarine Chanderpaul 38 1459 45.59 72.37 3/ 11
Michael Hussey 48 1185 45.57 86.11 2/ 5

S Rajesh is stats editor of Cricinfo.